South Asia Citizens Web

Violence is more internalised now — targeted towards its own people, against women and children. There are no traces of the memories of violence from the past — of the partition of 1947 and the subsequent wars. Pakistan never stops surprising a visitor.

Evidence of militarisation is everywhere – most recently in the sphere of higher education. The armed forces are involved with development projects, in welfare, and in farming. They are even involved in city beautification, the maintenance of playgroups and shops, of course Sports, and now higher education. Their increased presence is evident in subtle changes in our daily lives. The large number of ‘yu ha’ vehicles dropping and picking up school-going children is one that confronts me each school day.

The challenge remains as to how one can integrate madrassa graduates in the workforce, thus preventing them from joining extremist organisations. Madrassas in Pakistan flourished under late General Ziaul Haq who used Islamisation of the state and the society to prolong his rule. Whereas the population increased by 29 per cent during 1972 and 1981, the number of graduates from religious schools in Pakistan increased by 195 per cent during the same period. This resulted in an oversupply of graduates from religious schools who had limited employment prospects. . . . Such graduates, frustrated by their limited or non-existent employment prospects, have often gravitated towards militancy and extremism.

Does Anna Hazare have an ideology? Despite the surfeit of emotion that Hazare generates, this is a legitimate question that ought to be asked, understood and answered. That he is no democrat in the sense the word ‘ democracy’ is normally understood is a foregone conclusion, something that even his most vocal admirers would admit. He brings to debate and discussion the rigour and predictability of a military drill. His model of rule, governance and statecraft is that of undiluted paternalism, something even his secret admirers would admit.

Perhaps the scale of wrongs in the Valley has reached a level where even the discovery of 2,500 unmarked graves in north Kashmir doesn’t truly provoke outrage as it should. This discovery is the first official confirmation of what the rights activists have been saying for years - but beyond that, it is the same old story of denial.